Moore: Clock mismanagement in final seconds yields another deflating loss

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Brad Loper/Staff Photographer

Dallas Cowboys quarterback Tony Romo (9) walks off the field following a 31-29 loss against the Baltimore Ravens in NFL football action at M&amp;T Bank Stadium in Baltimore, MD on Sunday, October 14, 2012.

Cowboys relive final seconds of game following 31-29 loss to Baltimore

BALTIMORE — On an afternoon when so much went right, the Cowboys once again found themselves groping to explain what went so wrong in the final seconds.

It’s a losing habit this team appears incapable of breaking.

In the end, it didn’t matter that the Cowboys offense sprung to life against a quality opponent on the road. The group’s overwhelming advantage in time of possession was irrelevant, as well as the declaration of head coach Jason Garrett that, “our team grew a lot in this game.”

How exactly did this team grow in a 31-29 loss to the Baltimore Ravens? Did losses to Seattle by 20 points and Chicago by 16 lower the bar to that extent?

If credit is given at Valley Ranch these days for hanging tough in defeat, the Cowboys did show improvement. But this team fell below .500 for the first time this season (2-3) because it inexplicably squandered 15 seconds in its final possession then watched kicker Dan Bailey, arguably the team’s most efficient player, have his kick from 51 yards drift wide left in the swirling winds of M&T Bank Stadium as time expired.

“It’s obviously not a good feeling,” said Bailey, who hit his first eight field goals of the season, including three Sunday. “Everybody worked their butts off and it came down to a kick and it didn’t go in.

“I don’t know what else to say other than it hurts and I’m going to do my best and go out there and make the next one.”

If the Cowboys had managed the clock better in those final, fateful seconds leading up to Bailey’s kick, the outcome may have been different.

Few gave the Cowboys a chance to win this game. Baltimore is the proud owner of a 25-5-1 record against NFC teams at home and has not lost to an opponent from the other conference here since 2006.

But in many ways, the Ravens were begging to lose this one. Baltimore held the ball for less than six-and-a-half minutes in the second half and was unable to hold onto an onside kick as it clung to a two-point lead in the final 32 seconds. Baltimore cornerback Chykie Brown was hit with a 20-yard penalty for pass interference on the first play after losing the onside kick, giving the Cowboys a first down on the Ravens’ 34-yard line.

The Cowboys were left with 26 seconds and one timeout to win this game. Quarterback Tony Romo’s response was to hit Dez Bryant for a one-yard gain.

Bryant jumped up with roughly 21 seconds to play and went over to argue with the official. Romo was trying to get everyone back to the line of scrimmage as quickly as possible.

“Instantly at that moment you try to run another play,” Romo said. “Saying that, it took a long time to get us in the formation for the play we wanted to get into.

“Once it got below a certain point, it was not in our best interest to run another play.”

Precious seconds continued to disappear from the clock. As tight end Jason Witten said, “it all happened so fast.”

The Cowboys used their third and final timeout with six seconds remaining.

“We had the one timeout, so we had the ability to throw inside, and Tony was going to get them on the ball as quickly as he could, knowing that we had that one [timeout] in our pocket,” Garrett said. “We just took too long for everybody to get un-piled, so it got down into the single digits, so we said, ‘Take it down to four seconds and bang the timeout.’”

Garrett did not express regret for failing to call a timeout after Bryant’s catch, explaining that would have eliminated the middle of the field and forced Romo to complete a pass to the sideline the Ravens would certainly have blanketed.

Did owner Jerry Jones have a problem with the clock management that wasted those 15 seconds?

“No, because I know if we want the time, we’re going to have to make a play,” Jones said.

“Candidly, my mentality is we had the play with the field goal kicker and we didn’t get it done. That’s putting more maybe than we should on him, but with the wind to our back and him kicking, I had it counted that he would make it.”

Bailey refused to blame the wind.

Blame should be focused on a Cowboys team that allowed Baltimore’s Jacoby Jones to tie an NFL record with a 108-yard kickoff return for a touchdown in the third quarter and committed 13 penalties for 82 yards.

“It’s about execution in those moments, and guys doing what they need to do,” Romo said. “Sometimes you can do that and you still can’t win. Sometimes it comes down to a kick.

“If the kick goes in, you did a great job today, everybody. If the kick doesn’t go in, it’s we didn’t do enough to win.”

Catch David Moore on The Ticket (KTCK-AM 1310) three days a week with The Musers (Mon-Wed-Fri) at 9:35 a.m. and The Hardline (Tue-Wed-Fri) at 3:50 p.m. and twice a week (Wed-Fri) with BaD radio during the regular season.

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